My church recently learned the song, “Sound of Adoration,” written by Bryan Torwalt and performed by the band, Jesus Culture. It begins like this, “When we were lost ones, You were the Shepherd that carried us home. When we were prodigals, You ran to meet us with open arms.”
The opening sentence refers to Jesus’s parable of the lost sheep, and the following line comes from his parable of the prodigal son.
Most people understand the shepherd of the lost sheep to symbolize God. One of the most influential books on Jesus’s parables (by Joachim Jeremias) supports this claim, calling the shepherd “an image of God’s activity of love.” Bible readers, ancient and modern, have made this connection—after all, “The Lord is my shepher...Read more
Imagine you’re Mary, the mother of Jesus. You just made it through an unplanned pregnancy. You’ve delivered your baby in less than ideal conditions and now you're mixed up in soreness and lack of sleep and awe over this new-to-the-world little baby. Eight days after giving birth, you go with your husband to present your son at the temple, as was the custom. A righteous man from Jerusalem named Simeon finds you there. You stand before him, slightly awestruck, as he speaks a blessing over you and your husband.
But then, he says this:
“This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
A sword will pier...Read more
In recent years, the term “toxic masculinity” became a part of the public conversation surrounding gender, power, and violence. Actor Terry Crews spoke to congress last week about his own experience with sexual assault. He took the opportunity to condemn what he called a “cult of toxic masculinity” and urged congress to implement the Sexual Assault Survivor’s Bill of Rights.
But what is “toxic masculinity”? Without a more detailed explanation, the term can leave us with a bad taste in our mouths. It can inspire defensiveness, largely because it’s been misunderstood to mean that all masculinity is toxic. But it actually refers only to negative cultural expressions of masculinity that encourage violence, aggression, misogyny, and entitl...Read more
In 2018, the #MeToo movement came to American Protestantism. Emboldened with the hope that they will no longer be silenced, women are speaking out to expose the misogyny and abuse they’ve long endured in Christian homes, churches, and seminaries.
In recent weeks, controversy swirled around Paige Patterson and the Southern Baptist Convention. As the Washington Post reported, the revered patriarch and now former president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary fell from grace in light of revelations that he’d counseled an abused woman to stay with her husband, provocatively drawn attention to a teenage girl’s appearance, and allegedly instructed a female student not to report her rape, but instead to forgive her assailant.
Upon his removal, Patterson in...Read more
I was sixteen years old when Bill Gothard’s curriculum, “Basic Youth Conflicts,” came to the California Bay Area.
For readers who don’t know, Gothard was a popular Christian minister and speaker in the 1970s-early 2000s in conservative Christian and homeschool circles. Gothard once filled auditoriums throughout the US with audiences as large as ten thousand people. He founded the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP), which sought to educate Christians with conservative teachings on family, marriage, homeschooling, modesty, authority, etc. IBLP is also known for its strong emphasis on male authority and female submission.
Many folks from my local church attended the seminar, including my family. I still remember the excitement in the air as the crowd gathered...Read more
Recently, the Gospel Coalition (TGC) published an article entitled, “21 Places Women Emerge Front and Center in Scripture’s Storyline.” While I often disagree with TGC, particularly their theology of women’s equality and leadership in the church and home, I really appreciated the piece.
I read it in its entirety and found myself, apart from the opening few paragraphs, nodding along. Yeah, I wish the author recognized women’s countercultural leadership and ministry in the Old and New Testament, and its relevance for how we treat women in the church today. But still, I’m grateful to the author for this simple truth: women mattered in Scripture and they matter now.
In such a time as this, it must be said, and said again.
Amen, brother. Thank you for that...Read more
Many Christians, certainly most egalitarians, are familiar with Ephesians 5:21, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” (NIV). But as well-known as this passage is, it’s still common to wonder what mutual submission actually looks like in practice. Here’s my take on it:
Isaac and Me
A friend of mine, Isaac, and I recently went out for a meal together. Neither of us had an agenda. We ate our burgers and chatted for a while. Then we each paid for our own food and left.
Isaac is the worship minister where I attend church and play in the band. At Wednesday evening rehearsals and on Sunday mornings, he’s my leader. His authority over me, of course, isn’t absolute. It also isn’t eternal. As a good leader, he has my best interests in min...Read more
Today, advocates and activists from around the US will gather at the For Such A Time As This Rally in Dallas, Texas. The rally—led by abuse advocates and faith leaders such as Ashley Easter, Gricel Medina, and Mary DeMuth—will lament and challenge the Southern Baptist Convention’s inadequate response to sexual abuse and poor treatment of women. Leaders are urging SBC leadership to:
Honor and respect women in the church.
Create an SBC clergy sex offender database.
Train all pastors and seminaries on abuse and sexual assault.
The gathering was certainly spurred by recent events surrounding SBC giant Paige Patterson. But for many Christian women and especially Southern Baptist women, it’s so much bigger than that. It’s a biblical response t...Read more
School’s out for summer! Well, some of us have technically been out of school for quite a while, or maybe it’s our kids who are finishing up the semester. But summer is often a time when bookish folks knock a few titles off their to-read lists. So if you have time; you like to set lofty summer reading goals; and you’re egalitarian, here’s your 2018 dream list.
Do the whole list in three months or keep it light and nab just one or two books—it’s your summer. All titles have been vetted by CBE Bookstore staff and can be purchased in our store. We loved these books and hope you do too!
1. Birthing Hope: Giving Fear to the Light (2018) by Rachel Marie Stone
“In these profound reflections on the mysteries of life and death, Stone unpacks how chi...Read more
I was fourteen the first time I rode the subway alone. I remember my parents drilling me about practical safety and how to spot a predator. But in making me aware of the danger and how to respond to it, they trained me to guard myself against abuse.
Conversations like these are crucial. They promote wisdom and awareness, and they also arm us against those with predatory intentions. The church would be a safer place for vulnerable people if we had these same conversations on what abuse is and how we can protect ourselves from it—not just with church board members and staff, but also with entire congregations. As a pastor, I’ve facilitated many conversations on how to identify predators and protect young people, especially young girls. Here are some of the principles I use to id...Read more
